One-stop shops take the lead in online retail

British customers have remained loyal to general merchandise retailers for all their needs when shopping online, according to new research.

A study found that the top ten everything retailers attract close to two-thirds of all online visits in the UK and overall traffic on these sites has grown by 2% year-on-year, based on monthly figures.

Auction etailer eBay scored the highest with 333m visits per month on its site, while Amazon received an average of 331 British visits per month across its entire platform. Household retailer Argos followed with 59m visits, while Alibaba owned Aliexpress shared the same number of visits as John Lewis: 16.6m.

“In the UK, consumers gravitate towards sites selling the widest range of products and which have extremely high brand awareness. These sites are outpacing more niche sectors for consistent growth,” said Pavel Tuchinsky, Digital Insights Manager at SimilarWeb, which compiled the data.

In April, ecommerce sales rose by 9.3% year-on-year and now account for 13.4% of all retail spending in Great Britain. Etail growth has moved at a significantly more rapid pace than the recovery of the British high street.

Nonetheless, some experts have predicted a return to bricks and mortar retailers. Market research firm Dun & Bradstreet suggested that there will be a 3% growth in the retail sector in 2017, the fastest growth in four years.